by Alex Just
~ Island – pacific ~
Sunlight danced across the surface of the pool, the light dazzling and bright. Tom stopped dead in his tracks, he viewed the sight before him and Julia bumped into his back. Amongst the bright patterns of refracted light, thin strips of crimson threaded the surface of the water and floating like an exclamation mark was a broken arrow.
They both spoke his name at the same time:
‘Martin.’
‘What happened?’ he didn’t know what to think, the past day had gone so terribly wrong and it seemed just after he’d thought nothing more could get worse fate had to slap him in the face and prove him wrong. A glance at Julia did nothing to improve his mood, her face was white as ash and she had both of her hands clapped over her mouth staring in horror at the unspoken implications of the sight before them.
‘That’s it,’ Tom’s voice flashed irritation, ‘he’s probably dead or lying somewhere dying, and I don’t care if he wants nothing to do with me anymore because of you, I’m not going to leave him like that. I’m going after him, you can stay or go.’
Not pausing for a response he raced over to their cave and began to get himself ready to go after Martin. Inside he realised that there was nothing he needed from there, that all his tools were his powers, that their cave only held food supplies, which were almost gone anyway. Frustrated and dismayed he stood staring vacantly around the cave. He was so lost in misery that he didn’t even notice the small hand slipping into his.
‘We should eat first Tom, as much as we can and then we’ll go after him.’
He couldn’t do anything but nod his head dumbly and let Julia scrape together the measly remains of their canned food.
The first mouthful revitalised him and cleared the fog clouding his judgement. He sat back and closed his eyes wearily, with a bit of luck they’d find Martin lying in some bush, nursing an injury or two and willing to come to terms with the creatures Julia and he were. He quietly let his mind float into the wispy haven that was dreamy sleep. Julia let him sleep and allowed herself to drift off as well.
It was late afternoon when Tom remerged from his sleep. Cursing himself, Tom leapt up and woke Julia roughly.
‘You ready?’ his question devoid of hostility yet beheld an impatient undercurrent.
‘I am, you sure you are?’
‘The longer we wait the worse it could get for Martin, wouldn’t want him to get lonely.’ His last comment was accompanied with a roguish grin. The only sign the old Tom still existed.
‘Right, well, let’s get going.’
The two tidied the measly contents of the cave into a neat pile and left. Once down on the ground, Tom turned his nose into the air and tried to sift through the countless fragrances inhabiting the jungle air. Finally he caught the faint trace of Martin’s familiar scent and began pursuing it. He probably didn’t notice it himself, but the moment he began to smell the air, Julia could tell how his feral actions brought out the predator in him, even though he was in human form. It was scary to think that after so little time he’d become such a powerful creature.
The trail led them towards the area where the past night’s events had transpired. The place looked eerily tranquil; the only sign of any struggle was some flattened grass and bush, and the odd stain of blood. Not pausing longer than necessary before he let the memories oppress him, Tom pushed on, following the scent with reinforced motivation. Martin couldn’t be far from here now. They continued their pursuit, not a word spoken between them, Tom’s face had intense concentration impressed on his features that implied complete silence, which Julia respected. This lasted until they reached the rushing sound of water and the two realised the scent continued.
‘It looks like he travelled far further than we imagined,’ Julia broke their silence.
‘If that’s the case, which I think it is, then he can’t have been badly hurt. He’s had all day to travel this far and obviously he’s gone on further.’
‘It’s getting dark pretty quick, what do you want to do? We could camp out here. It looks like that’s what Martin did,’ asked Julia.
‘No we’ll never catch him like that. We continue. If I’m not wrong, my guess is that this river doubles in on itself in a loop, because I think I can see it continuing on the other side. Give me two seconds while I check it out.’
Before Julia could utter a syllable he’d morphed and splashed across the river, shaking water off his inky black coat, as he remerged he continued bounding in a straight line. Tom’s guess had been right, the river looped in on itself and continued here again, and Martin’s scent carried towards his nostrils on the slight twilight breeze. So Martin had taken the long route tracing the exact path of the river, which meant they might be able to catch him yet. Excitement loosened a bolt of adrenaline through his veins and he spun around, dashing back towards where he’d left Julia. He had to dig his claws into the dirt on the bank to stop him from slipping in. Morphing back into his human form he yelled across to Julia.
‘Come across the water, I found his trail on the other side.’
Without bothering to reply, Julia ran towards the river bank and leapt high into the air, changing as she did so. Her lemur paws grasped a vine dangling above the ground and in mid-air used her momentum to swing cleanly across the river and land in the upper reaches of a tree. With swift movements she descended to the ground landing as a human next to Tom.
‘I think it is better we travel morphed as we’re quicker that way? At least I am,’ Tom said.
‘I thought you’d never ask. I can follow the scent just as well as you can,’ she smiled cheekily and before Tom could retort she was gone, leaving just the flash of a lemur’s tail in her wake.
‘Oh there is no way she is going to win this,’ savouring the whiff of competition Tom couldn’t resist and morphed, pounding along the ground following Martin’s scent. The river zoomed up but he ignored it, leaping straight across its running surface and skidding to a halt to rearrange his bearings. Once he had the scent he was off, a dark rocket racing alongside the flowing water. Occasional glimpses up into the tree tops showed what must have been Julia, flitting across canopies matching his pace easily.
Darkness began its intrusion and soon covered the landscape in its silent mantle, the two shape shifters reached the edge of the forest, trees began thinning and tussock grassland started to spring up everywhere. Scaring Tom to a stop, Julia leapt down in front of him and altered back into her human form, forcing Tom to do the same. Breathless from the run, they took a while to recover before speaking. The quiet calls of jungle animals in the dark began to take over and a warm breeze ruffled the canopy gently. The moon’s light was reflected in the river, forming silver ribbons that stretched towards the mountain.
‘He’s continued towards the mountain. We should reach the base and camp there, climb it tomorrow, what do you reckon Tom?’ the question was phrased delicately; her posture was tense as if awaiting an outburst from Tom for even thinking of stopping their pursuit. Feeling ashamed of himself for how he’d been blaming Julia for everything that went wrong, he apologised.
‘I’m sorry Julia,’ for a split second he hesitated before leaning over and kissing her softly on the mouth, feeling her relax in his embrace, his feelings for her were so strong that all thoughts of guilt at what he was doing disappeared. All that mattered was contact with her. Julia didn’t understand what was going on at first, so surprised at what had happened. Quickly she returned the kiss, a playful smile toying at the corner of her mouth as she realised Tom did like her and that things were going to be different between them from now on, but different in a very good way she thought happily.
Finally when they broke apart she asked, ‘what were you sorry for? Not the kiss I hope,’ she smiled coyly.
Tom couldn’t help but laugh.
‘I’m never sorry for something like that. I meant that I was blaming you for all that’d gone wrong when really it wasn’t your fau
lt at all.’
‘That’s OK, let’s just put it behind us and find Martin. Are we staying here for the night?’
‘Sounds like a good plan to me.’ He flashed her a grin as he changed leaving the words: “let’s race,” hanging in the air and then he was off, Julia close on his heels. At their pace it didn’t take them long, their adrenaline pushing them a little up the slope to a small grassy spot below a large boulder for them to rest. They changed back into human form and shared another kiss, this one just as passionate yet longer and more intense. It was as if an electrical current was blitzing between them and the only thing that mattered was each other. Slowly they drifted off into sleep, in a comfortable embrace, and for the first time since they’d been stranded on the island they slept peacefully and without nightmares.
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